This course takes an in-depth and comparative look at the most powerful states of the emerging modern world: the Ottomans of Anatolia (1453-1923), the Safavids of Iran (1501-1736), and the Mughals of South Asia (1528-1858). Between them, these states commanded western Asia and Asia Minor and were the principal counterparts to the nascent European colonial powers of Britain, France, and Holland. During a time when all of these states were on equal footing, there was an extensive flow of goods and ideas between these world regions. We will explore how the interactions of the Islamic powers among themselves, as well as their dialogue with the European states, were both foundational to the shaping of the modern world as we know it.
About the Instructor:
Alka Patel is Professor in the Department of Art History and in the PhD Program for Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and her PhD from Harvard University. Patel's research has focused on South Asia and its connections with Iran and Central Asia, including overland and Indian Ocean maritime networks. Her works include Building Communities in Gujarat: Architecture and Society during the Twelfth-Fourteenth Centuries (Brill 2004), Communities and Commodities: Western India and the Indian Ocean, for which she was guest editor of a special issue of Ars Orientalis XXXIV (2004). Patel’s interests have expanded to include mercantile networks and architectural patronage in 18th-19th-century South Asia, as evidenced in Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition (co-ed. K. Leonard, Brill 2012). Her recent volume India and Iran in the Longue Durée (Jordan Center for Persian Studies, 2017), co-edited with ancient Iranist Touraj Daryaee, resulted from an international conference convening a wide array of specialists analyzing Indo-Iranian connections over two millennia. Her current monographic project on the Ghurids of Afghanistan and northern India comprises two volumes, the first of which was published in 2022.